How to best sharpen eye pencils?

Therese1

Sharpening eye pencils is the bane of my existence. I love it when you get a new pencil, with its nice sharp tip...but I can never sharpen them to get the same sharp tip thereafter. I think it is the sharpeners. They all seem to contain a little "stop" near the far end of the sharpening hole, which causes the end to be blunt. It is like a little piece of metal stuck in the sharpening hole that prevents the pencil from going too far forward and getting a nice point on it.

I tried putting the pencils in the freezer, but all that did was make the tips break. (I've never had an eye pencil tip break on me while sharpening, so I can only assume that the freezing did it.)

The one I'm using now is Sonia Kashuk, which is made in Germany. Does anyone have any sharpeners that they would recommend? And how often do they need to be replaced?

SortaRican

OMG! I thought I was the only one!! It's so frustrating and I know it can't possibly be that difficult but clearly it is for me, I don't use pencils for that specific reason lol especially since mine always break and I've never tried freezing them, so idk what I'm doing wrong. I've had great success with gel eye-liner. I know that doesn't help you but if someone knows the secret to sharpening a freaking eyeliner pencil, I'm all ears...or eyes.

Therese1

I feel like I'm the only one too, SortaRican! I'm glad I'm not. I really like my eyeliner and lip pencils, so I don't want to switch to gel...argh.

I was told by some people on another forum to try putting the eyeliner pencils in the freezer for 5-10 mins. to try to get them a little harder so that they would sharpen better. But all it did was make them break. And if the problem is the little stopper thingy in the sharpener, I don't know how freezing the pencils would fix the problem. I'll let you know if I find a sharpener that meets my standards!

sixelamy

You really have to get a good quality sharpener. The only sharpener I have ever been able to successfully use is one I got from Mary Kay.

Therese1

Sixelamy, I was going to check on a new sharpener too...I buy a lot of Jane Iredale products from my local salon, and JI has their own pencil sharpener. I'm hoping that will do the trick. The Sonia Kashuk one that I have from Target is made in Germany, so I thought it would be OK. It is the best one I've tried, but it's still not doing the job.

PerriP

I have one from sephora and one old loreal lip sharpener that has a hole for a fat pencil and a hole for a normal sized. Both of those are great

~ sent with love and good intentions ~

Therese1

Perri, I'll be at the mall where Sephora is soon, and I will check it out!